Things that make you go "Heh"....

[ramblin_rosie]

I've had to read poems by Gunter Grass before. It made me physically ill. (Non-German-speakers, suffice it to say that both poems were about horrific crime scenes.) So I'm not at all surprised to find out that he served in the Waffen SS. In fact, that explains a lot.
[To be honest, my German Poetry prof, who had lived through WWII herself, gave us the poems with the caveat that *she* didn't like Grass and didn't expect *us* to like him, either, but that we needed to read them so we could say we'd read Grass. :P]

Comments

[bbgreenie.livejournal.com]

Well, Grass is painful to read, granted. There are very harsh scenes, and he's not a favourite of mine either.

But one word of defense for him (since this piece of news of course is a biggie in all the feuilletons in Germany) - I believe him when he says it weighed on him. I do think one can't begin to imagine what it must've been like for a teenager during that time and how it dawned on many what they had been fighting for after it was all over. (For a REALLY good and shocking insight into that fanatism imposed on many, try to get your hands on Die Brücke (http://german.imdb.com/title/tt0052654/), one of the best movies I've seen about that subject. And since this is such a sensitive issue *sigh*, I'd be the last one to try and relativise those things. I don't think you can hold someone responsible for what he did and believed as a 15-17-year old. BUT it is VERY debatable how he dealt with it later, not telling. This does destroy the nimbus of being a moral authority which he had in after-war Germany.

I'm really wondering what made me write such a long comment on this! Normally I don't care for Grass, and that's a euphemism...!

[winonah.livejournal.com]

I was forced to read Grass several times at school and university... I hate him. Really I can't understand why everyone in the literature world adores him.
He is a sick person to me. "Die Blechtrommel" is the most disgusting piece of sh** I've ever read/watched.

[bbgreenie.livejournal.com]

Hm, it's interesting - it's painful, yes, but I don't think it's bad. I think Germany thinks so highly of him because he is one of the people who took up and digested the whole nazi/war/deportation/displacement thing. Germans always have a hard time dealing with their own history, and they're thankful for anyone who does it in the Arts.

I've come to think that actually the films/books that are hard to watch/read stay in your mind the longest time and make you think again and again cannot be that bad, although your first reaction may be "Utter crap!".

I had that with the "Tin Drum", with "Clockwork Orange", with "Chaché"... Wouldn't wanna watch them again but am kind of glad I did.